Joel Silver, Studio Canal To Reboot John Carpenter’s ‘Escape From New York’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday March 18, 2013 @ 11:41am PDT

EXCLUSIVE: Joel Silver‘s Silver Pictures has joined forces with Studio Canal to build a new franchise with a retelling of Escape From New York. The 1981 John Carpenter original starred Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, a tough convict dropped into a futuristic New York that has been turned into a post-apocalyptic maximum security prison. He’s charged with rescuing the president (Donald Pleasence), who is held hostage by the prison kingpin (Isaac Hayes) after his plane crashes within the city walls. Snake’s offered a pardon if he’s successful, but fitted with a lethal device that will kill him if he tries to run or misses the deadline.

A remake had been attempted not that long ago at New Line with producer Neil Moritz and The Crazies helmer Breck Eisner, with Gerard Butler, Jeremy Renner and Tom Hardy all mentioned as potentials to play Plissken. That effort ended when New Line let the option lapse almost two years ago.

Studio Canal, which partnered with Silver on the Liam Neeson action films Unknown and Non-Stop and the upcoming Sean Penn-starrer Prone Gunman, has entrusted Silver with the rights. Silver is planning an entirely new take on the material. The goal is to turn it into a trilogy, starting with an origin story in a fashion similar to the way Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes restarted that franchise. Studio Canal will finance development of the project before placing it with a studio. A writer search is underway.

Silver and Andrew Rona will produce. Silver’s EVP Alex Heineman will be executive producer. As for a new Snake, either Butler, Renner, Hardy or Neeson would hit the mark as the one-eyed tough guy.

I have doubts about this idea. Escape from New York should not be remade/reboot.To my opinion Jeremy Renner and Liam Neeson are absolutely not suitable to play Plissken and Gerard Butler maybe. Hardy could do it, but nobody will perform it like Kurt Russell. That character was played perfect by Russell.And the 1981 original has that dark and creepy atmosphere that gives it the perfect feeling. (Sorry for the descriptions if they sound funny, but I have to translate my thoughts from Dutch to English). Nowadays everything has to be action and no creepy thrill like this one. I think they will screw this up totally.

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Another unnecessary and blasphemous remake that continues Hollywood's conformist and unoriginal ways. There is only one "Escape From New York" and it is Carpenter's original. There is also one Plissken and it was played by Kurt Russell, who was actually offended by the remake when it was first announced by New Line. Instead of remaking it why not re-release the original or come up something totally original.

Yes I totally agree, Hollywood has a lot to answer as far as remakes are concerned.

They are making them for a new generation of movie goers, and some of the old shows/movies weren't that good compared to the methods of acting and movie making at present... Miami Vice is a good example. It was a show I grew up with. With the pastels, cars, boats and guns, it was innovative at the time, now I watch it, it was cheezy acting and poor stories, but it is what it is, and was appropriate at the time. Then along comes Hollywood and makes the movie, enough said!

Most young people wouldnt know "Escape" so to them it will be a new movie.

The only remake/reinvention of a new character is the new James Bond movies. Daniel Craig is probably the closest to the real James Bond character that Ian Fleming described in his books and has improved the JB character since the original Sean Connery.

The original is a work of low-budget film making art. The production values were off the charts. Like Mad Max, it wouldn't have been the same film with a high budget. And I can't think of any actor who could pull off the role other then Kurt Russell anyways. Kurt was/is Snake Plisken.

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Oddly enough, even as much as I like the original, there are some interesting possibilities for as remake. One thing is to not slavishly copy it. If you do, what's the point? Just get Silver as far from it as possible. I think Statham might be able to do a credible surly, 'not-quite-believing-what-he's-seeing' Plissken. On the otherhand, if they can leave the humor and bright colors out of it, the guys that did Gamer and Crank seem to have the right sense of pacing for a guy on the run type of movie (with plenty of that background story/world detail that we like).